“Phoning it in” is a phrase I’ve used for a long time, but I’ve wondered lately if it’s not one that’ll soon fall out of use, since so many of us (all of us here at Automattic, for example) telecommute, so that phoning/blogging it in is actually the way we’re supposed to work. Whether the phrase is going out of fashion or not, today I am assuredly phoning my post in, giving you a couple of links instead of one of the usual stodgy posts on usage.

The first is the blog of an acquaintance of mine — a copyeditor by trade who blogs sometimes hilariously about mistakes she finds in manuscripts. If you’re one of the grammar-conscientious among us, you might find “Love, Your Copyeditor” a hoot.

Today, she links to another site claiming to list “The 20 Most Controversial Rules in the Grammar World.” I’m not sure I agree that all of these are terribly controversial, and a few shoo-ins (for example the I/me, the its/it’s, the there/their/they’re, and the your/you’re issues) are missing, but by and large, it’s a great list to be familiar with if you’re interested in matters of grammar and usage.

I’ll try to put the phone down and return to the good old fashioned desk with a real post next week. Please speak up in the comments if there are topics you’d especially like me to cover.

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  1. I had thought that phoning in my post would create an audio file to listen to instead of reading! I did the postaday2011 challenge, and had I known my audio would be transcribed, I would have done that for sure!

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  5. Es importante la gramática. Pero en estos momentos es relativo. Pues se entrecruzan traducciones, modernismos, simplificaciones etc. Aún no existe un padrón que respalde una gramática correcta. Mientras habrá que acondicionarse.

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  7. Grammar geeks of the world, unite!! I left a post over there about the sad misusage of “ain’t” — not that it isn’t often used incorrectly (it is), but that it’s egregious incorrect use has led to its being ostracized as generally ungrammatical, when actually — it isn’t. Ask yourself, which is better: “I’m right, am I not (ain’t I)?” or “I’m right, are I not (aren’t I)?” Yet everyone I know will use the second sentence.

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  9. Hi, you are really doing great but I will like you to clear this semiotics and epistemology as they both relate to teaching and learning.
    Thanks

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  10. I often edit most of my posts on my iPhone, if that counts. Of course, I have to watch out for the auto-correct though. Could get interesting.

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  12. The mistakes often made while writing or speaking should sometimes be overlooked,because we are often imperfec t in nature.

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  13. Great stuff! I didn’t know there was such a thing as Post A Day 2011 until I went to the Support page,I think… but isn’t it about time that the widget should be changed to ‘Post A Day 2012‘?

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  14. yes, please continue on to postaday2012, i really enjoy posting every day, motivation please and keep up the good work, we are out here and reading every day, thanks again MJ

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